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I have marshaled at public golf courses and at country clubs but have never volunteered to participate at a professional golf tournament. I play as a guest of Industry Hills Senior Men’s club, when the LPGA decided to play the KIA Classic tournament at IH they asked members to volunteer in working this event, one of the members asked me if I would volunteer so I did.
There are many positions that you can volunteer for at one of these events –
- Standard bearer – they carry the names and scores the player has currently. The standard gets a little heavy after the 10 hole or so, especially if there are hills on the course which was the case at IH. Many times you carry the standard twice depending on the speed of play.
- Walking Scorer – as the name implies you punch in the score stroke by stroke and hole by hole using a hand held electronic scorer, you then call it in to the scorekeepers at the leader board on the course.
- Merchandise tents – selling food, mementos, clothing, or other items
- Marshals – the main duty here is crowd control and spotting balls on the landing area.
I volunteered online and my name was picked to work hole #14 for this event. You can volunteer for 1-2 days or all days of the tournament. I volunteered for all days and worked the Pro-Am event and the next 3 days of competition. During the Pro-Am if you are on the green when a player and the playing partners come through it’s a perfect opportunity to ask for autographs, otherwise during the match you have to wait until they finish the 18th hole.
The two 18 hole courses were combined to make one competitive 18 hole layout for this event. It featured the front 9 of the Babe with the back 9 of the Ike, with some holes alternating on the front half. Watching these gals and women play from what is basically the blue tees (some of the tees were lengthened, such as the 17th) was a great experience for me since I have played there. I was fortunate to start on Wednesday which was the Pro-Am, and as the ladies came through the 14th green, which is the hole I was assigned, I got several autographs. And all of them were more than willing to sign my cap.
As Marshals our main assignment was crowd control, which was easy with the lesser known players, but the stars of course had large crowds following them. Unfortunately the rain cut down on attendance the 1st and 2nd day of competition. But Saturday and Sunday had fairly large crowds, Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, and Yani Tseng had above average crowds. The fans were very cooperative.
At the 14th green I was able to witness some great iron shots as well as some longer hybrid shots come onto the putting surface. From the 14th tee box we saw the putts on Hole 13 that we thought would swing the match in favor of Jiyay Shin, but I witnessed the wedge shots on the 18th where Sandra Gal put it within gimme range. Shin's miss of a short putt was heartbreaking for her and her fans.
The course was in impeccable condition, the greens were slightly slow by pro standards because of all the rain, but the groundskeeper staff did a marvelous job of keeping them playable. The fairways were rolling very well, there were many 240 - 275 yard drives on the 14th fairway, giving the players a 130 - 160 yard second shot into a 3 tier elevated green that has bunkers on left and right. Saw several birdies lost because of the small nuances that the greens have where the ball trickles away from the hole as it slows down.
A little about Bogey1Fogey38
Bogey1Fogey38 is a long standing member of the GK family. Being retired and focused on various pursuits in addition to golf give Bogey a well-rounded view of the sport we love and all it has to offer.
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